News

The New Year has seen the release of the new Conway Boats website.
Mike Ivory has been building his range of punts and traditional styled small rowing boats and other craft for over 10 years and the 2009 range can be viewed on the updated site. All the small rowing boats and other craft are hand built to order and can be delivered throughout the UK.
Over the years Mike has supplied craft for use on ponds, lakes, lochs, rivers and even moats.
The punts are great craft for maintenance tasks and for fishing whilst the clinker style rowing boats perform well on the water and their beautiful traditional lines are sure to enhance any location.  
Conway Boats have been supplied to The National Trust, English Nature, local authorities, fisheries and many, many private customers.
Mike can be contacted via the website: http://www.conwayboats.co.uk/ or email: mikeivory@conwayboats.co.uk or telephone: 07874 252834.

 
One of the miniature outdoor OrchidsWe know here at Water Gardener Magazine.com how many of you are interested in unusual plants for your gardens and around your ponds, so here is a news release from Rowena Hall at Thompson and Morgan that may give an idea for a unique Christmas present. Also it is also an excuse to publish some pictures of some stunning flowers in the middle of winter.

Thompson & Morgan’s new and world exclusive Orchid ‘Butterfly Wings’ Mixed is a spectacular hardy miniature orchid. Previously only available to private collectors this stunning orchid is now available to home gardeners for the first time - exclusively from Thompson & Morgan.

Originally a native species of the rocky mountains of Japan and often known as the ‘Butterfly Wings Orchid’, it is an extremely sought-after plant and highly prized by collectors, especially in Japan. For the last 30 years or so, breeding has brought about many beautiful cultivars. This has resulted in a range of inter-subspecific hybrids of Ponerorchis graminifolia, bred for their more elaborate flowers and stronger flower stems. Orchid ‘Butterfly Wings’ Mixed is produced from this range.
The dainty blooms of Orchid ‘Butterfly Wings’ Mixed, though diminutive, produce a magnificent display during late spring and early summer with a fine procession of graceful flowers in a wide range of colours. The paler blooms, in particular, give off a wonderful vanilla scent. Gardeners will be delighted to learn that Orchid ‘Butterfly Wings’ Mixed is remarkably hardy and can withstand temperatures of as low as O°C and lower.

Lilypools a build raised ponds to suit your requirements - as long as you want the pond to be  made of wood and you have a flat area of ground. Within these perameters, size colour and shape are yours to choose. They have a Lilypools garden ponds are made from blocks of Redwood.standard construction using Redwood blocks and they usually come at depths of half a metre or one metre. They are finished off around the top edge with ThermoWood decking that has a life expectancy of at least 30years. This forms a seat.

Every Lilypool pond is handbuilt on their own premises to critical standards. Although the construction looks easy (like child's play), the cutting and fitting of the blocks needs to be exceptionally precise to ensure a craftsman like finish with the pool looking even and perfect. The blocks are glued and nailed into place to ensure a solid framework for a tailormade Butyl liner. Before the liner is fitted the pool shape is lined with thick felt and a strapping base. High quality Cuprinol products are used to colour and waterproof the exterior of the pond.The pools are delivered intact and can rolled into place, ready to fill. The Standard round Pond 1 900mm diameter by 435mm deep starts at £345, rising to the Standard round Pond 6 2500mm diameter by 585mm deep, which comes at £755.

Pondlife DragonflyCreative Pond Covers Limited is launching 2 new products to their innovative Pondlife Pond range this year.  Pondlife Ponds are a complete child safety product ideal for schools and private gardens.

Pondlife Ponds consist of a rigid pond liner together with an etched, galvanized steel safety cover, they include great access for maintenance and pond dipping and they are easy to install.

The RHS have reported that they are now unable to "accept donations of fish" in any of their gardens. This follows the death of over 80% of their fish at Hyde Hall in Essex due to a disase subsequently diagnosed as the deadly Koi Herpes Virus. The Department for the Environment Fisheries, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has banned all movement of fish in or out of the garden. This is all part of a series of movement bans spreading like a patchwork quilt over the whole of England. This has precipitated DEFRA to offer important advice to the general public. But for those people who are trying to sell fish and particularly Koi to the general public, many people seems all too aware that there are problems in the world of Koi carp and so hardly anybody is buying, nor have they been for some time.